Chapter 220 The Desolate Kingdom's Demise is Inevitable
Even the General Zhenhuang felt there was no need to take precautions. In this terrible weather, the patrol guards on duty at the city gates were naturally more lax, and even the soldiers who were on guard duty at the city gates had slipped away to slack off.
More than a dozen Xuanjia soldiers easily arrived at the city gate and skillfully set up some explosive packs.
Since we got this thing, we no longer have to go through the trouble of climbing walls.
Blowing open the city gates would be incredibly convenient and would also significantly reduce casualties among our own troops.
After placing the explosive charge, they retreated to a safe distance, lay down in the thick snow, and pressed the ignition remote control.
Bang bang bang!
A flash of light appeared, followed by a series of explosions.
The ground trembled, even shaking the snow off the city walls, and thick smoke and the acrid smell of gunpowder filled the air with the howling wind.
The patrol guards of Zhenhuang Pass in various corners of the vicinity were stunned by the commotion.
When they came to their senses, they found that the city gate was surrounded by colorful flames and swirling smoke, and the heavy and tall city gate had long since been shattered into pieces.
"What...what's going on?!"
"Why did there suddenly goo and shake so violently, even the city gates are gone!"
"Never mind that, just blow the horn!"
The guards scrambled and stumbled, trying to raise the alarm.
However, in the blink of an eye, a large number of figures seemed to appear out of thin air in the surrounding snow.
The figures held long swords, their blades gleaming against the snow, reflecting a chilling light.
"A ghost...a ghost!"
"What the hell?! This is a sneak attack!"
"..."
Before they could even see what the newcomers looked like, they were surrounded and attacked by a group of figures. They didn't even have time to fight back before they were knocked unconscious.
Subsequently, thousands of well-trained and fully equipped Xuanjia soldiers poured into the breached city gates, swiftly conquering one camp after another.
The soldiers stationed in the various camps didn't even have time to put on their clothes before knives were already at their throats, leaving them no choice but to surrender.
Inside the general's tent.
While fast asleep, General Zhenhuang vaguely heard strange muffled sounds coming from afar, and even felt his bed shake a few times. But he was too sleepy to leave his warm bed.
He groggily opened his eyes and called out, "What's all that noise outside?"
The guard on duty beside the tent replied, "Reporting to the General, it is still unclear. We have already sent people to investigate."
General Zhenhuang yawned, "If it's not anything urgent, tell me tomorrow morning after you've investigated..."
"Yes, General, please get some rest."
"Um……"
General Zhenhuang quickly fell asleep again.
I don't know how much time has passed.
He was suddenly awakened by a chill.
When I opened my eyes, I realized that the blanket covering me was gone.
There seemed to be someone standing beside the bed.
"Who! How dare you pull off my bedding? Are you tired of living?!"
He started cursing and tried to sit up.
However, a chilling sensation on his neck brought him back to his senses, and he was shocked to see two gleaming swords crossed and held at his sides.
The two men, wielding swords and wearing black armor he had never seen before, had cold, murderous eyes.
General Zhenhuang was stunned for a moment, then shouted, "Who...who are you! How dare you trespass into my tent!"
Then he shouted at the top of his lungs, "Guards! Catch the assassin!"
"Stop shouting." A Xuanjia soldier said coldly, "Thirteen of your sixteen lieutenants have already led all the Zhenhuang Army to surrender to us. The other three are said to be your most trusted confidants, but unfortunately, they only want to escape. We have brought you their heads. Look at the ground."
"What?!" General Zhenhuang looked down in shock.
The bloodied heads of three lieutenants came into view.
Only then did he realize that his situation was hopeless, and he hurriedly begged for mercy, "Hero, spare my life... Hero, spare my life! I... I surrender too!"
The Xuanjia Army sneered, "If you know who we are, then surrender."
General Zhenhuang forced a smile, "You gentlemen are all exceptionally skilled, and you were able to enter this place without any effort. What reason do I have to resist? As long as... as long as you spare my life, I will agree to anything."
Several Xuanjia soldiers looked at them with disdain.
Unexpectedly, the fastest to surrender in Zhenhuang Pass was this very commander-in-chief.
Among those deputy generals, there were a few tough guys who would rather die than surrender, but in order to protect their soldiers, they were persuaded by the Xuanjia Army with reason and emotion before they surrendered.
"Your deputy general said that you ordered some Zhenhuang soldiers to plunder supplies from surrounding villages. Do you admit to that?" the Xuanjia soldier asked.
The Great General of Zhenhuang's smile froze. "I...I admit it, but...if we don't rob, we won't have enough here."
"Then why did a deputy general say that as long as we save a little money, it won't affect all the soldiers at Zhenhuang Pass getting through this winter?"
"Ah? This... cough cough, I just wanted to make sure the soldiers didn't have to go hungry..."
"Bullshit! Ninety-nine percent of what we stole ended up in your hands and your cronies' pockets, while those who were meant to starve are still starving! Do you know how many innocent people have lost their lives because of your order to plunder?!"
"I...I..."
General Zhenhuang was speechless for a moment, his face turning red with frustration.
In desperation, he could only say, "Don't kill me! Don't kill me! You...you're after the border of the Desolate Kingdom, aren't you? I can tell you about the defenses of the other borders!"
"No need!" The Xuanjia soldiers stopped talking and swiftly brought their swords down.
Swish—
The head of the Great General of Zhenhuang flew out with his eyes wide open, rolling to the ground with a thud as a trail of blood.
In less than half a night, several thousand Xuanjia soldiers swiftly captured the crucial Zhenhuang Pass.
They then spent the rest of the night cleaning up and reorganizing, ensuring that those who should be killed were not spared and those who should be incorporated were not overlooked. They also managed to block the news to avoid alarming the borders of the other dozen or so desolate kingdoms in the Xuanhuang Mountains area.
The next morning.
Several Xuanjia soldiers escorted Feng San, whom they had captured at Zhenhuang Pass, back to Niujia Village.
This was Ning Jinli's special instruction: this guy must be captured and handed over to the villagers for trial.
When Feng San returned to Niujia Village, he was taken into the ancestral hall.
A group of villagers stood around, glaring angrily, showing no sympathy whatsoever for him because he was missing a leg.
"Village chief...fellow villagers..." Feng San knelt on one knee, swaying and barely maintaining his balance, pitifully appealing to the crowd, "I...I know I was wrong, please...please forgive me for the sake of me growing up here..."
The old village chief swung his cane and swung it at the man.
Bang!
Feng San's cheeks were bruised and several teeth were knocked out.
He covered his face and wailed, "Village chief... I really know I was wrong! Hit me! Hit me however you want, as long as it calms you down!"
"Pah!" The old village chief spat in his face. "Now you say you know you were wrong? Have you forgotten how you betrayed Niujia Village, how you brought people back to plunder resources and show off? You even changed your surname! It hasn't even been two days! Do you think we don't hold grudges?"
"Waaah..." Feng San knelt on the ground, kowtowing as he spoke, "I... I'll change my surname back. I'll never dare to do it again. I was born a resident of Niujia Village, and I'll die a resident of Niujia Village. I beg the village chief, I beg everyone, give me a chance to reform! I swear, if I ever do it again... I'll be damned!"
The old village chief glanced at the villagers, thought for a moment, and said, "In that case, I'll have everyone raise their hands to vote. If more than half of the people raise their hands, I'll keep you in the village; otherwise, I'll kick you out and leave you to fend for yourself."
Feng San was shocked.
He had a broken leg, and it was in this freezing winter weather.
If you are driven out of the village, you will surely die!
"Village, no...please don't!" he cried, tears streaming down his face. "Don't send me away, or I...I can't live!"
The old village chief said calmly, "So you don't agree with letting everyone vote?"
Feng San shook his head repeatedly. He knew all too well how bad his reputation was in the village. Even without the events of the past two days, he would probably have been driven out of the village by the majority of people in this vote.
“If there’s no vote…” the old village chief narrowed his eyes, “Fine, then just beat him to death with sticks in the ancestral hall. My Niu Family Village will not tolerate a traitor like you.”
Feng San was dumbfounded. "Then... let's have everyone vote."
The old village chief sneered, "Ha, you said it yourself. Come on, folks, those who agree that he should stay in the village, please raise your hands!"
The villagers present did not react when the voice was spoken.
Feng San's heart sank. He dragged his weak body toward them, pleading, "Gentlemen...please have mercy...I'm already crippled, I...I've suffered retribution, please have compassion..."
Still no one raised their hand. Some people even spat at him, and others were almost ready to kick him.
"Alright, the result is obvious. Feng San, it's not that I didn't give you a chance, it's that you don't deserve everyone's forgiveness. You deserve it!" The old village chief said, and then had the villagers open the ancestral hall door.
A biting, icy wind rushed in.
Feng San, his face filled with terror, kept shrinking into the corner, crying, "No! I don't want to go!"
The old village chief gave him a wink.
Several burly villagers angrily stepped forward and lifted Feng San up.
Feng San struggled desperately, but it was all in vain.
Finally, watched by all the villagers, he was thrown onto an open space at the village entrance, where he froze into a block of ice in less than half an hour...
...
About ten days later.
In the Xuanhuang Mountains, the mountain roads centered on the original camps and strongholds have been completely connected.
The Xuan Kingdom mobilized its border troops, including the Zhenxuan Army, totaling approximately 200,000 men, to cross the Xuanhuang Mountains and arrive at Zhenhuang Pass in the Huang Kingdom.
Zhenhuang Pass became a major passage for the Xuan Kingdom's army to enter the Huang Kingdom.
Qi Zhan and Mu Cheng each led 100,000 Great Xuan troops through Zhenhuang Pass, encircling and launching a lightning attack on the remaining border passes of the Huang Kingdom located on the eastern side of the Xuanhuang Mountains.
In the depths of winter, the generals of the other border states were equally unprepared.
In just five or six days, more than a dozen border cities of all sizes in the Huang Kingdom on the eastern side of the Xuanhuang Mountains were captured, and from then on, the Huang Kingdom's defenses against the Xuan Kingdom completely collapsed.
The Xuan Kingdom's 200,000-strong army swept through the wilderness as if entering an empty land, advancing with unstoppable momentum wherever they went.
With General Mu Cheng's personal presence, many places didn't even need to be attacked; the local garrison and people spontaneously opened the city gates to welcome them.
By the time the king of the desolate kingdom learned of this situation, it was too late. However, he and several of his favorite ministers still wanted to fight, so they could only mobilize all the troops from other places to fight against the Great Xuan Army.
And Anguo, which borders it to the north, would never miss such a good opportunity.
While the Wasteland Kingdom was fully engaged in dealing with the Xuan Kingdom's attack, the Xuan Kingdom also launched an attack on the Wasteland Kingdom, leaving it attacked from both sides and its destruction inevitable.
However, at this critical juncture, Anguo suddenly sent an envoy to Xuanguo to request an audience with Xiao Qidi.
When envoys from other countries came, Xiao Qidi naturally treated them with courtesy.
A banquet was prepared, with fine wine and delicacies, to make the Anguo envoy feel comfortable.
The envoy from Anguo also behaved very respectfully and presented Xiao Qidi with many valuable gifts. The two sides seemed to get along very well.
Finally, the Anguo envoy revealed his purpose during his meeting with Xiao Qidi.
They said they were sent by the King of Anguo to establish friendly relations with Xuanguo and to discuss the division of Huangguo's territory. The capital of Huangguo would be the boundary, with one-third of Huangguo's northern territory belonging to Anguo and the other two-thirds belonging to Xuanguo.
That certainly shows a lot of sincerity.
Xiao Qidi readily agreed and gave the Anguo envoy some generous gifts in return when the envoy left.
The whole process went quite smoothly.
No sooner had the envoy from Anguo left than several high-ranking officials who had participated in the meeting in the main hall sighed with regret:
"It seems the Desolate Kingdom is about to collapse, and the Kingdom of An has actually come to show goodwill. Your Majesty, Fairy Jinli is truly a prophet!"
"Fortunately, Fairy Jinli informed us in advance, and His Majesty had also sent people to investigate that Anguo was secretly amassing troops on the border of our Great Xuan, otherwise we would have been deceived."
"Yes, it's all thanks to Fairy Jinli!"
Ning Jinli's existence is no secret to the important officials in the Great Xuan Dynasty.
However, they did not know that Ning Jinli was from a parallel universe more than two thousand years in the future.
What she didn't know was that this wasn't because she was a prophet with uncanny foresight.
According to Ning Jinli's historical records, the King of Anguo was cunning. During the process of Xuanguo annexing Huangguo, he pretended to be on good terms with Xuanguo to make Xuanguo lower its guard, while secretly preparing to launch a surprise attack on Xuanguo.
She made this judgment based on the fact that even if the events unfold differently in this world, the temperament of the King of Anguo is ultimately the same, so he will definitely make the same choice when similar situations arise.
But knowing the inside story, Xiao Qidi couldn't help but smile as he listened to several important officials praising Ning Jinli.
He felt a sense of pride when his beloved girl was respected by others.
"Your Majesty, shouldn't we also make preparations in secret?" a minister suggested. "The border between Anguo and our Great Xuan is located at the northernmost end of the Xuanhuang Mountains. We can send some troops from the north to that area."
Another minister shook his head and said, "No, we already need to guard against nomadic tribes to the north of Da Xuan. Moreover, after annexing Yu Kingdom and establishing Wangxi Province, we will have even more borders with the northwestern grasslands. Our defenses need to be strengthened. How can we divert our troops?"
Several other ministers also joined the discussion.
"We can't just stand by and watch Anguo amass troops, can we? If they attack, we'll be at a disadvantage!"
"Well... how about we have General Qi and General Mu allocate a portion of their troops?"
“That won’t work either. These two generals only have a total of 200,000 Great Xuan troops with them. The Wilderness Kingdom is not a small place like the Yuanyu Kingdom. Reducing their troops will hinder their attack and advance.”
"..."
The ministers discussed the matter back and forth, but were at a loss, and their expressions became worried.
Seeing their worried expressions, Xiao Qidi's smile deepened.
Seeing this, one of the ministers tentatively asked, "Does Your Majesty already have a solution?"
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